Why did I meet Jennie? A woman I love but also have to put up with her medical condition. Couldn't I have met a more healthier gal who likes the outdoors, climbing etc? But then, if Jen had not hooked up with me, she probably would be dead by now, her doctors concur with that assessment. And she is too fine a woman to be leaving this world. Did fate have something to do with our meeting?

There are so many, perhaps too many, instances in my life where I wonder if I had control of my destiny, or the Fates did.

I contemplate... my navel, my life, my climbing ability.

But I do not have to contemplate my love for life. It is there. The eternal optimist.

You have Karma from previous lifetimes
You have world Karma from the world that you live in
You have your own life plans that you made before you came into this lifetime
You have your choices in this lifetime
Plus, you have the choices others make

All of these things work together to make up your existence and your experience

World Karma plays a bigger role then people realize. You can be a nice guy and be born into a world where everyone else is involved in a world war which will limit your choices in this life.

Oh.. and there are those who know how to dodge karma, or get others to take their karma. Those folks are just plain evil. Dick Cheney is a karma dodger. One day it will catch up with him, but for now he is still wealthy even though he is an evil sh#t.

so as to leave god, and how i belief out, so not to be preachy, though, you can always ask later, if you want, and i would share, :)

think of it kind of like this:

LEADING toward something success in this life:

the destiny part is like gravity, etc, principles that obviously work
a certain way...

then, choices, as to how we choose to handle our life, as to (in this case, for example) gravity...

we either DO things that co-operate with it... respect and work with it, and the 'destined outcomes' in one way, come to pass, but then, too, the actions or reactions to our actions, also come to pass, as well...

there is like a 'whole picture' thing going on, that is 'fine tuned' spiritually, to our physcial being that lives here...

leading toward something UNsuccessful:

then, (for example, too, just using gravity, since it is so easy to see), there is the complete utter non-care for how 'gravity' works... destiny, in this case, come to pass in an obvious way, as to what bad choices would do... or choices made by never caring to seek out knowledge, etc, before making any, as to how one 'deals with gravity'...

:O

many times the 'whole picture' would never even get a chance, and it would not be the 'spiritual aspect' fault, as the outcome, here, then...

LASTLY:
the who we meet, and jobs we get, and all the etc, that connect with all this, many times have something to do with how they connnect to our inner-feelings and learned-ventured, and coaching, experimenting, and what we believe deep inside that we really want-or-are seeking, from all we've gone through, and who we think we are... (or at least, so far have learned what we really are)...
edit: yet, because of how destiny of (in this case) gravity worked out something, THERE was the someone, something, etc, THERE when it 'belonged there' (so to speak) and then--time for the NEXT choice, etc, etc,...

not sure if this helps??
you could find other examples, too...

ooop, the lastly, kind of makes it more complex, huh?
but human are complex, at times, :)

If it catches up to him then he is not dodging his karma at all. Or is there a rule that dictates when karma reflects back on you and messes up your life because of the crap you did? Is it days, weeks, or just a few years?

If it catches up to him then he is not dodging his karma at all. Or is there a rule that dictates when karma reflects back on you and messes up your life because of the crap you did? Is it days, weeks, or just a few years?

Yes, in the end there is no way to absolutely dodge your karma, but you can put off the end results for a time. Putting off those results for lifetimes is what some call karma dodging.

So Dick Cheney's evilness was acting in concert with people that deserved bad karma, he was like the Zen Teacher hitting the deserving over the head with a bomb or some anthrax.
The Iraq war was destiny for all those that deserved their fate.

No.. Incomplete answer.

Good people don't deserve the evil that is foisted on them, though there are people who have made bad choices and get what they get. There are also Saints who choose to take on this evil in order to be the judgment of the evil. Jesus said.. "for judgment I am come". The rest are somewhere in-between. As I said, there is personal karma, and world karma, and evil. If you live in this world, then you are subject to all three though there are those who don't deserve either the world karma that presently exists or the evil.

Some people here seem to define destiny or fate as written in stone. It is not. It is a combination of your karma which is the build up of all past decisions and actions, plus your current decisions and actions.

You could be fated/destined to be a great climber coming into this world with great genes and a great family, and then derail that by choosing instead to do drugs, or even be derailed by someone else's evil, such as getting drafted into a war. The future is not written in stone, though predilections and a preponderance of Karma can indicate likely futures.

There is a whole lot more to it, but that is the readers digest super condensed version.

Just my opinion. Take it with a grain of salt. My destiny seems to be similar to Juans. I'm sorely tired of this planet.

Americans are destined to be stupid...Not by choice but by Karma...Patrick ...Eliminate the American half of your dual citizenship and you will immeadiately feel smarter....PS...Watch out for the killer fog crystals...RJ

I can't but help use my own experience to guide me about whether or not there is free will or destiny. It's all I really have.

I don't see that I can be anyone I want to be. I'm stuck here in this body, in this time frame, by my parents, with the events in life--which at least for the most part, were not my making. When I look very closely I don't find that I make decisions or initiate actions consciously. Everything on the inside seems to "well up" from no where that I can find. It SEEMS like I have free will and choice, but I can tell you that there are many times when I feel like I'm in a movie, coasting, and the the universe is happening around me. I'm thinking it's all a done deal; no one is responsible; no one can be guilty of anything. It's all mapped out. Really. Everything. Call it anything you want to, but I sense an immense intelligence . . . beyond conception. Am I hearing the infinite, inter-related equations of variables all interacting to create what we call "now," or am I simply coming to a recognition that I'm a particle in an ocean of consciousness, learning that I am the ocean? Nothing can be any other way right here, right now.

A sense of control is necessary for every individual. Without it, you can't be an individual. That would be too bad for every body.

MIssJ, I sort of worded that wrong. When I said "put up" I simply meant to deal with the condition. And I do love her.

When she first came out of hospital August 26 2010, the docs, social workers and public health nurse said that she had two options - home care or state care. Several people I know said to put her in to care and have a life. I had about $100,000 in cash and shares and I could have walked away.

But she deserves a quality of life and I hope that I am providing both love and quality for her. Everyone says I am. But I admit, it can be trying at times. And the booklet the Carer's Association sent me at the beginning Running on Empty: Who Cares for the Caregiver has been helpful.

My GP (general practitioner) told me (several months ago when I went to see him about stress and have my bloods taken) that I will be rewarded in my next life, and then I could see he wondered if that was the appropriate thing to say, I just laughed and replied: "That's okay doc, I understand what you mean."

Ride the Wild, every day. Jump on the back of a wild horse, grab her hair, dig your heels in HARD and give her a go, see if you got what it takes to stay in the saddle. :-)

When opportunity knocks? Answer the damn door, already!

Fate by definition is not yours to control. Destiny... is not yours to assign. Both are the fabrication of the living, neither have any meaning other than what those of us this side of the veil, assign it.

But in sickness and in health, that's the one that makes it hard to keep the committment. Every day for years on end. Believe me, I see it among my friends, my relatives. It's love--it's how you exect to be treated if the tables are turned and you are the one with dementia, the leukemia, or what-have-you.

You know you are doing the right thing, Patrick, have made the correct decision. It takes courage and I hope you learned that it's a far greater courage that it requires than does climbing. In my opinion and in my experience...